Montana hits the road to face Indiana State

2-0. On to the next.

The Montana Grizzlies look to keep one of the best starts to a season in program history rolling this week, traveling east for a first-time matchup with the Indiana State Sycamores of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Led by a smothering defense, Montana sits at 2-0 on the season having outscored its first two opponents by a combined 71-7, the team's highest combined two-game total to open the year since 2002 when UM started 66-7.

But those two wins have come at the happy hunting grounds of Washington-Grizzly Stadium, a place notoriously difficult for visitors to win. It's a different story this week with Montana traveling two time zones east to face a second-straight opponent from the MVFC, well out of the Grizzlies' comfort zone.

Meanwhile, Indiana State, yes, the same Indiana State of basketball legend Larry Bird fame, returns to home Terre Haute at 1-1 this week after suffering a 56-0 drubbing from Perdue, two hours north in West Lafayette. ISU's week-one win came in overtime against North Alabama (17-14), the same team Montana beat 61-17 in the 2019 home opener.

In the non-conference finale for both teams, the Sycamores will be eager to rebound and defend their home turf with a tough league slate ahead. Montana heads to Terre Haute looking to keep the momentum before returning home to open conference play on Sept. 24 for homecoming, but won't look past Saturday if championship hopes are to remain alive.

Kickoff from Memorial Stadium (12,764) in Terre Haute is an early one for Montanans, set for 1 p.m. Eastern Time, 11 a.m. Mountain.

WATCH: The ESPN+ streaming service will be the only place to watch Montana take on Indiana State this week, with no TV, cable, or satellite services carrying the game. Thanks to the Big Sky and Missouri Valley Conference's multi-year deal with the Worldwide Leader in Sports, all of Montana's 2022 football games will be available to stream live on ESPN+.

Luke Martin will provide the play-by-play on the broadcast, with Jim Leisure serving as the analyst and Kelsie Kasper reporting from the sideline.

LISTEN: "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran is in his seventh season behind the mic at Montana and is once again set to bring you all the Grizzly action over the airwaves on the Grizzly Sports Radio Network and its fifteen affiliate stations around the state.

Your "Grizzly Gameday" starts two hours before kickoff each Saturday with the official pregame radio show featuring Denny Bedard and Scott Gurnsey, who then throw to Corcoran and long-time color commentator Greg Sundberg 30 minutes to kickoff. Bedard and Gurnsey will also wrap up the day's action with the official post-game show.

Griz fans outside the radio footprint can stream all of Montana's broadcasts on their mobile device LIVE and FREE of charge with the Varsity Network App, powered by Learfield and Sidearm Sports. Fans can download the app for iPhone or Android use for instant access to free gameday audio streams and the Coach Hauck Radio Show and receive push notifications to remind them of games starting or upcoming audio broadcasts as well.

GRIZ IN THE POLLS: Montana held firm for a second-straight week at No. 2 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 3 in the Stats Perform Media Poll. The Griz closed the gap with No. 2 South Dakota State in the media poll with 1242 points in the voting, just 21 points shy of leaping the Jackrabbits in the rankings. Montana also earned a first-place vote at No. 2 in the coaches poll and came in at 642 points – 25 ahead of SDSU.

The Big Sky is boasting five teams in this week's national polls, with Montana perched at the top. The MVFC landed four.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: Montana got the Big Sky out to a 1-0 lead in this year's Big Sky/Missouri Valley Challenge Series with the week two win over South Dakota. With South Dakota State topping UC Davis last week, this year's series is now tied one game each. Including the Grizzlies' game at ISU, the two FCS power conferences will face off four more times this season, with the Big Sky looking for its first-ever series win.

SERIES HISTORY: Saturday's game marks the first-ever meeting between Montana and Indiana State, and the first game in a home-and-home series with the Sycamores set to visit Missoula in 2025.

It's only the second time the Griz have ever played any team from the Hoosier State, with Valparaiso being the first in 2017. The Griz will get another team from Indiana on the slate next year when Butler comes to Montana to open the season.

Against the Missouri Valley, Montana head coach Bobby Hauck has also seen plenty of success with a 7-3 all-time record at UM against teams that are current members of the MVFC.

A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS: Despite giving away two turnovers last week, Montana still ranks tied for third in the FCS in turnover margin at +3.

Junior Bergen is off to a hot start in his sophomore season. The Billings native ranks third in the FCS and first in the Big Sky in receiving touchdowns with three on the year, just one behind the national best of four.

The dual-threat capability of Lucas Johnson has been on full display in the first two games, leading the team in both rushing and passing. Johnson's 277 yards of total offense are the second-most in the league and top-20 nationwide this week.

The Griz rank No. 2 in the Big Sky and No. 9 in the FCS in rushing defense, having only allowed two teams to run for an average off 54.5 yards, much of which came in the fourth quarter last week.

Montana's defense also ranks No. 2 in the nation in team tackles for loss with 23 – the best mark in the Big Sky.

RECORD WATCH: Robby Hauck logged 11 tackles Saturday to inch closer to Montana's all-time record. Now with 384 to his name, he needs just 14 more to set the school's career mark.

Malik Flowers logged 24 yards in the kick return game in his first chance at an attempt this season. He needs just 18 more to become UM's leader in kick return yards, passing Rob Schulte's career mark of 2,086. Flowers already own UM's record for kick return touchdowns at 5, just two shy of tying the Big Sky and FCS record. His current average of 28.32 yards per return is also a UM-best and the fifth-best in Big Sky history.

HAUCK MILESTONES: Now with an overall record of 110-29 and 63-14 in conference play in his ten years at Montana, head coach Bobby Hauck is the Grizzlies' winningest coach of all time. He is also closing in on becoming the all-time winningest coach in Big Sky Conference history.

Hauck needs just 14 more to pass former NAU head coach and UM assistant Jerome Souers' Big Sky record 123 overall wins. However, he only needs two more wins to pass Nevada's Chris Ault's total of 111 to move into second place in league history.

In conference play, Hauck's career total of 63 wins ties him in fourth place with Mike Kramer, needing six more wins to pass Ault's Big Sky total of 68, 12 more to pass Tim Walsh's total of 74, and 24 more to pass Souers' total of 85.

Last week's win over USD was also Hauk's 30^th since returning to UM in 2018 and his 125^th win in his career as a head coach.

MORE DOMINANT D: Montana produced one of the most dominant defensive performances of the last decade on week one and followed it up with another on week two.

The 47-0 shutout of Northwestern St. was just the second time Montana kept an opponent completely scoreless since 2011 when the Griz beat Idaho State 33-0. The last time UM pitched a shutout was 304 days before the NSU game – a 35-0 whitewash of Northern Colorado on Nov. 6, 2021.

With a near-shutout against South Dakota last week, the Griz were just shy of making more team history. You have to go back to 1947 to find the last time Montana started a season with two shut-outs, blanking Eastern Washington and Portland 21-0 each that season.

The Grizzlies went nearly 144 minutes this season without letting their opponent on the scoreboard, nearly seven and a half quarters of shutting teams out. That translates into nearly two and a half hours of play without letting a team on the board.

In Montana's last five regular season games, opposing offenses have only scored 20 points against the Grizzly defense. The start of that streak was also Montana's last shutout at Northern Colorado.

SATURDAY'S STARS: Linebacker and Buchanan Award candidate Patrick O'Connell was named the player of the game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium last week with 10 tackles, a sack-and-a-half, and two TFLs to also earn Montana's nomination for Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week.

O'Connell is also officially on record watch at UM. With 23 sacks to his name he's tied with Lance Spencer at No. 8 on UM's all-time record. He also needs just a half TFL to tie fellow Buchanan Finalist Trey Young at 35.5 and move into UM's top-10-all time in tackles for loss.

Freshman punter Patrick Rohrbach also helped Montana flip the field Saturday, firing off six punts for 253 total yards at an average of 42.2 per punt, two over 50 yards with a long of 57, and four dropping inside the 20. Paired with UM's punt coverage team, South Dakota averaged -.3 yards per return.

O-LINE LEADERS: Junior guard Hunter Mayginnes picked up his 10^th career start for the Griz last week as the most experienced started on the offensive line, followed closely by AJ Forbes with seven.

It was freshman Liam Brown who got to lead the fight song in the locker room post-game, however, as the coaches' pick for UM's offensive player of the week.

LET 'EM KNOW: Sophomore defensive end Kale Edwards also helped lead the song after dealing a crushing hit on kickoff coverage that set the tone early against the Coyotes.

UP NEXT: Montana returns to face Portland State for Homecoming on Sept. 24. The Griz then get set to play three of their four games in the month of October on the road, with the lone home game on the 15^th against Idaho.

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Players Mentioned

Junior Bergen

Liam Brown

Kale Edwards

Malik Flowers

AJ Forbes

Robby Hauck

Lucas Johnson

Hunter Mayginnes

Patrick O'Connell

Patrick Rohrbach

University of Montana Athletics